If Men Could Menstruate

I personally like this essay for several reasons.  First, I have always admired Gloria Steinem as an icon of women's rights, and over the years I have embraced many of her ideals.  Second, her expression of a this issue through her comically sarcastic approach resonates for me.  Who could disagree that males have built whole cultures around the idea that all women have penis-envy; Sigmund Freud took that theory to new heights by claiming women are victims of penis-envy.  Essentialism teaches us our biology, makes us ‘less than’.

  

I agree with Ms. Steinem’s theory that the power we have to give birth makes womb-envy just as logical, and she says, “the characteristics of the powerful [men] are thought to be better than the characteristics of the powerless [women], and logic has nothing to do with it.”  Women own menstruation, therefore, it is perceived as a negative event. If men owned menstruation, it would be a positive event worthy of glorious celebration.  Like most other traits masculine, it would be a cause to celebrate rather than dread. 

The metaphors she creates about men menstruating are brilliant and funny.  The word menstruation itself carries the male gender in the name. If men did menstruate, they would brag about how long their periods last and how much blood they lost; tampons and sanitary napkins would be federally funded; and they would be labeld with appropriate masculine names, such as, John Wayne Tampons, Muhammed Ali’s Rope-a-Dope pads, and Joe Namath Jock Shields.  Men would brag, “I’m a three-pad man”, as they would attempt to convince women that sex is better during their periods; lesbians would be said to fear blood and therefore life itself, that what they need is a good menstruating man; and women would be missing the ability to measure time and space without a monthly cycle, a built-in gift for measuring the cycle of the moon and the planets.  She says the power justifications could go on forever.  “If we let them.”

Because women menstruate, they have been considered unclean, smelly, on the rag, and moody.  Ms. Steinem’s approach highlights the negative, irrational approach women have been subject to that has gone on with regard to menstruation since time began.  This essay can make women laugh at the ridicule they have dealt with because of their biology and because of the oppression our patriarchal society has imposed on them.